The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office has completed their investigation in an officer-involved shooting involving an acorn.
The office posted the full body cam footage and the 44-page report to their Facebook page this week.
Back in November 2023, officers were called to a home in Okaloosa County after a woman accused her partner, Marquis Jackson, of stealing her car and sending her threatening messages. One message included an image of what officers said was a pistol silencer.
While the woman was filling out paperwork with Sergeant Beth Roberts involving her partner and the missing vehicle, Jackson was detained and put in the back of a deputy’s vehicle.
@scrippsnews This body cam footage shows the moment a #Florida deputy shot at a detained suspect after mistaking an acorn hitting his car for gunfire. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office released the findings from their #investigation ♬ original sound - Scripps News
Deputy Jesse Hernandez walked to the car to do a full search of the suspect, when he heard what he thought was gunfire. In the video. You can hear him yelling, “Shots fired!”.
The sound he heard ended up being an acorn hitting the top of his car.
Hernandez then started firing into his own vehicle at Jackson, as did Sergeant Roberts.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff addressed the incident earlier this month in a video posted to YouTube.
“This was a very tragic and traumatic incident for Mr. Jackson. We are so grateful and prayerful and thankful that he was not injured,” said Sheriff Eric Aden.
Investigators determined Deputy Hernandez’s use of force was not objectively reasonable.
They also found that Sergeant Roberts’ use of deadly force was objectively reasonable, and she was exonerated.
Hernandez resigned in December while under investigation.
“We’re actually going to use this particular case as training for the rest of our staff as a potential thing that we need to watch out for, to make sure that we never put someone's life in jeopardy again,” Sheriff Aden said in the Youtube video.
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